Edit your first image using RawTherapee - Lightroom Alternative

 Adobe Lightroom is probably the best image processing program for photographers but many people cant afford it. RawTherapee is one of the best Lightroom alternatives and it is free. Free as in speech and as in beer because the program is open-source, developed by a group of volunteers. It is cross platform and there are available downloads for Windows, Linux and mac OS users. It is a great  non-destructive editing tool for raw and jpeg files. RawTherapee has its own on line documentation called RawPedia to support users. But enough with the prologue. Lets have a look and edit our first image using Rawtherapee:

 

 RawTherapee File browser

 

• Open RawTherapee and search for your Raw image or images using the File Browser. When you locate it double click to load it and start editing.  

 

 RawTherapee - Setting White Balance

• Now its time to use the Editor. Select the Color tab with your mouse as you see in the second screenshot or press Control and C or W. Use the pipette on a neutral gray area of the image (second screenshot) or adjust the White Balance to taste using the Temperature and Tint sliders. 

 

 

 Exposure Adjustment

 

• Now we must select the Exposure tab to adjust the exposure. You can use your mouse or use the shortcut Alt and E. Move the slider to taste (exposure compensation). There are also options such as Contrast, Saturation, Lightness and Black. You may wanna play with these and especially with the Saturation slider. If you feel that your image is heavily underexposed or overexposed you may want to start with the Exposure adjustment first.   

 

 Noise Reduction

 

• RawTherapee has a tool to reduce noise. You must now navigate to the Details tab or press Alt and D. Scroll down until you see Noise Reduction and select it as you see in the screenshot (power button). The default settings will be applied. The color noise (chrominance) will be removed. If you want to remove luminance noise (grain caused by brightness levels) you must do it manually. Do not use noise reduction when you also use sharpening. You must also know that the noise reduction effect is visible only when you zoom in to 100%. You can use the keyboard shortcut Z to zoom in and then see the effect applied. To zoom out press the F key again.    

 

 Horizon Adjustment

 

• Basic image editing sometimes includes the geometry of an image. Press the S key or Alt and T or use your mouse and select the Transform tab (screenshot available). Scroll down and click on the tab Select Straight Line.You can now change the horizon level. Just click and drag a line and rotate the image as you wish. See also the screenshot - watch the cursor of the mouse.  

 

  Image Cropping

 

 

• We may also have to crop our image. Select the crop button (see the screenshot) or simply press the shortcut key C. Now click and drag over the image. If you are used to other programs you will probably looking for a way to "apply" the crop. Rawtherapee crop takes effect in real time so there is no need for an extra step to apply the crop. To be more accurate you can use the F shortcut and zoom.   

 Downscale the Photo

 

• Last but not least its the size of your picture. If you plan to post your image online you will probably want to downscale it so that your website will have faster load times. There is also no need to upload a 15 MB image to Instagram. Now you have to select the Resize tool and the Post Resize Sharpening tool. Leave them at the default settings for now and RawTherapee will take care of the rest. (See also power buttons on the screenshot)

 

 Save your image as JPG

 

• Time to save our final image. Select with your mouse the Save Current Image button or simply press Control and S. It is the button on the bottom left. Do not select the button on the top right cause it will save it as pp3 only.  Select there the JPG format and leave the quality settings to the default values. Save it to the folder of your choice. 
  

 

These are some of the most basic editing tools of RawTherapee but it has plenty more for the advanced user or the enthusiast. The program feels complicated and bloated at first and it takes some time to learn using it. But on the other hand it has its own online encyclopedia and you can find the support that you need there. Overall RawTherapee is a nice opensource and free Lightroom alternative. It is not a Lightroom killer but it gets the hob done.